SNITCH ALERT! THE METER READER WILL NARC ON YOUR STASH
From a Metro PD presser this morning:
An NES meter reader this afternoon reported seeing potted marijuana plants on the back deck of 6530 Curreywood Drive.West Precinct Crime Suppression Unit detectives responded to the residence of Joe Stanley Byrd, 65, at 12:30 p.m. Seized in a subsequent search were 43 marijuana plants, one pound of processed marijuana, five weapons, and a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The marijuana has an estimated street value of $44,000.
In addition to the outside plants, marijuana was also being cultivated under grow lights in the garage.
Byrd was not home at the time. Detectives sent word through a relative for him to contact them.
I wonder what "word" the detectives sent through Byrd's relative. I'm sure it was choice.
Category:
Law and Order
Comments
"The marijuana has an estimated street value of $44,000."
Unless it was that new gold-plated marijuana with diamond seeds, I think their numbers are a bit off.
Posted 08/08/2008 at 03:24:14 PMI was thinking the same thing myself, Burrito. If you click the link and look at the jars of stuff they nabbed, it doesn't look like more than a few pounds at most. I'm sure it's not peanuts, but it ain't $44 G's worth.
Posted 08/08/2008 at 03:35:16 PMDon't break the law and you won't have to worry about what the meter reader is doing.
Pretty simple.
Posted 08/09/2008 at 09:43:59 AMSo why did they confiscate his car?
Gilbert, as a small-government advocate, don't you find that a little police state-ish?
Posted 08/09/2008 at 12:02:29 PMOf course it is, BBB. That's the whole gig here. After all, our servants and protectors are going to do their jobs. Tickets. Beer sales busts. Automobile grabs. And shit, just look at the money they're generating to propagate more of the same. Wonderful. Why, I just feel more safe and secure each time I see a metro cruiser prowling my neighborhood.
Just one question (or maybe two): Did they check the meter reader's pockets to make sure he didn't clip and make off with just a bud or two? And who watches the evidence property room? You don't suppose perhaps one or two of the potted plants could end up sitting in sunshine with a little watering bulb stuck in the dirt do you, hmmm?
Posted 08/10/2008 at 09:01:46 AMRather than reinvent the wheel; Slate has a very good explanation of how "street value" is calculated. It would also appear that the plants may have been valued at an estimated full production value, rather than their current size.
http://www.slate.com/id/2166980/
Quote from Slate: "It's easiest to estimate how much high-value drugs like heroin and cocaine are worth. Marijuana is a different story, and less experienced officers who deal with small-time pot busts are most likely to be creative in their valuations."
You can do the math yourself just like the DEA, by checking out the figures here: Figure 34. Price of One Bulk Gram of Marijuana. It's on page 38 of the PDF.
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/price_purity/fig1_38.pdf
The full report is here: Prices by purity from the 80s through 2003.
Posted 08/10/2008 at 11:10:15 AMhttp://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/price_purity/
"Gilbert, as a small-government advocate, don't you find that a little police state-ish?"
No more so than forcing people to participate in and pay for social security and medicare programs.
No more so than mandating usage quotas for ethanol fuel or mileage standards for cars.
No more so than dictating what type of toilet people can buy to install in their houses when they remodel a bathroom.
No more so than every gun control law in the country.
And on and on with countless other instrusive, paternalistic and downright nosy laws, rules and regulations covering just about every aspect of existence.
Since we all have to abide by all these things whether we agree with the purpose or legitimacy of them or not, I don't have much sympathy for those who think they should be selectivly exempt from the particular ones that they don't like.
Posted 08/11/2008 at 07:28:22 AMBusting people for marijuana is common everyday behavior for the police and any other person working for the government in a position of authority. This however receives little praise from the majority of people who are socially doing nothing worse then drinking or smoking cigarettes. If there was a marijuana lobby as strong as the cigarette lobby in America, this would not be an issue. When people talk about gateway drugs it is always marijuana. However lets ad up the statistics. How many people have died from drinking in the last year? How many people have died from smoking cigarettes in the last year? How many people have died from other legal things our government says is ok? Now check the marijuana statistics....I am really tired of the effort and money the government spends on this type of thing. If it's such a big deal, just make it legal and every cigarette company in the world will have marijuana cigarettes on the market by the end of that week....In my opinion, this whole thing is Bull Shit
Posted 08/11/2008 at 09:05:20 AMAmen on the bull-shit: However, what drives it is the money. Dollars soaked in bull-shit are just as precious as clean ones. And how many of them do you think Davidson County is going to swipe from Byrd the dope grower before they're done with him?
Posted 08/11/2008 at 10:24:54 AMWell said John. And Gilbert, it is a well known fact that virtually every citizen is in violation of some law currently on the books. "Not breaking any laws" is almost impossible.
Pretty stupid to leave those plants out in plain view. Pretty dicey to even attempt a grow operation in metro Nashville. But I'm glad people do.
Posted 08/11/2008 at 10:37:01 AM"And Gilbert, it is a well known fact that virtually every citizen is in violation of some law currently on the books. "Not breaking any laws" is almost impossible."
It is a well known fact that drug laws happen to be an area where government is particularly enthusiastic about enforcement. We aren't talking about some obscure 100 year old statute on the books that just happens not to have been repealed such as not riding a horse on main street on Sunday or something like that.
Most citizens have a pretty good idea of the areas of the law where they run the risk of big trouble if they get caught breaking the law.
Posted 08/11/2008 at 03:54:48 PMWell I don't disagree with you there. I'm pretty sure Joe Byrd knew what he was dealing with legally. But I would add that marijuana prohibition is my idea of an obscure statute.
Posted 08/11/2008 at 04:25:23 PMConsidering Tennessee is second only to California in the amount of Cannabis cultivated annually, I wonder, why this is news?
Certainly it's easy to debate how wrong it is that this guy will likely go to jail longer than a meth dealer, and to debate the absurdity of the war on Marijuana, that's just picking low-hanging fruit. Shouldn't we be more concerned about why this story is front page news?
Scratches head, turns page...
BTW, those plants will yield maybe 2 ounces max, it's flowering time, they would be much bushier at this time of year, if Mr Byrd was growing commercially. Looks like to me this guy was growing medicine.
Posted 08/12/2008 at 07:15:46 AM